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The Philippines has been identified as the 3rd largest exporter of Marijuana in the region. Can we turn this into a good news? Let's legalize Marijuana and utilize it for our benefit. There is more than meets the eye in this issue. Rep. Solomon Chungalao has something going in 2004, but the uninformed rode on the issue and killed it before it even made the first step. For our government, this can be an additional source of income via taxes.

For the Filipinos, read on and be informed!
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I have been reading a lot of material on Marijuana or Hemp or cannabis sativa and it seems that we can benefit more by using it instead of making it illegal due to its “supposed” risks.” Supposed” since I’ve seen materials that say it is harmful to the body and others which say the claims are exaggerated. Some say smoking cigarettes is far more dangerous than smoking marijuana (and yet we allow cigarettes). It is clear that there is a lot of confusion on the effects or marijuana and there is a need to come up with a definitive study – one where the methodology and the results can be replicated by others for independent verification to determine once and for all its effects.
Even then, at this point, we are more at risk by not taking advantage of its other uses. Read on and you’ll know why.

• How to fight Global Warming

o Use Hemp to make paper
 stop the cutting of trees!
 Hemp paper is superior from pulp tree based paper (naturally acid free and does not turn yellow)
 hemp paper uses far less chemicals to produce
http://www.hempline.com/AboutHemp.Articles.asp?Article_ID=4

o Use Hemp for fuel
 hemp is earth’s number one biomass resource (biomass can be turned into fuel like ethanol)
 Biomass is clean and does not cause pollution (no CO2 emission). Carbon Dioxide (CO2) is being blamed for the greenhouse effect
 hemp can be planted in virtually any soil condition and has a short maturity cycle – hence supply is guaranteed and plentiful
 Rudolf Diesel, inventor of the Diesel engine, intended to use vegetable and seed oils like hemp
 we won’t need fossil fuels, oil etc. every country can become energy independent
http://www.hemp4fuel.com/

o Use Hemp for construction
 isochanvre is a construction material made from hemp and is a non-toxic replacement for cement, lumber, sheetrock, plaster, insulation and acoustic tiles
 Isochanvre is non-flammable, fungicidal, antibacterial, waterproof and inedible by rodents and termites
 can be used to create houses (gk 777 can benefit from this!)
http://www.chanvre-info.ch/info/en/-Hemp-Building-.html

• How to lessen Pollution

o Use Hemp to create plastics
 oil based plastics are not biodegradable and is a major source of garbage
 Bioplastics are biodegradeable and much stronger than wood (Ford’s Model-T was actually made from bioplastics using hemp)
http://www.zelfoaustralia.com/en/index.shtml

o use hemp for our clothing
 Hemp clothing is very strong and uses little chemicals to produce
 in contrast, cotton uses 55% of total pesticides in the us alone ($195m, 2007)
http://sweetgrassfibers.com/whyhemp.html
http://www.rainforestinfo.org.au/good_wood/hemp.htm
Note that commercial hemp contains very little thc – which is the active ingredient of marijuana (the thing that makes you high) so there is no danger of it being used to smoke. there are other uses so continue reading on.

• How to end world hunger

o plant and eat hemp seed!
o remember – hemp can be grown almost everywhere. it also uses less fertilizer and resists pests hence it requires very little pesticides
o hemp seed is a highly nutritious source of protein and essential fatty oils without saturated fat
http://www.hempfood.ca/
http://www.healthynewage.com/hempnut.html

• Approved medicinal uses of marijuana

o use sativex for multiple sclerosis
 Sativex is based on Marijuana and is already approved in Britain and Canada
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/sativex

o use marijuana to relieve pain and nausea
 Very useful for those suffering from HIV, cancer, epilepsy and other debilitating diseases
http://p216.news.mud.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070402/us_nm/usa_marijuana_corrected_dc_1
http://www.neurology.org/cgi/content/abstract/68/7/515
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/02/070212185335.htm
Please take note that i am not advocating the smoking of marijuana except upon your doctor’s prescription. for us here in the philippines, we have to do something about the law first hence it is very important that more people get to know this information. unless the whole picture about marijuana is known to many, support for its legalization will be shot even before it takes off, just like what happened Ifugao Rep. Solomon Chungalao in 2004.

• Promising medicinal uses of marijuana
(still being studied)

o marijuana has the potential to treat cancer
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=25709

o Marijuana has the potential to treat Alzheimer’s disease
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4286435.stm

o marijuana has the potential to treat parkinson’s disease
 http://www.michaeljfox.org/news/article.php?id=332&sec=4

Again – I am not advocating the smoking of marijuana to prevent these diseases. What is important is that these researches be fully supported and explored – and that will happen if access to marijuana is easy (it is very hard now because of the restrictions of the law).

Let me state some of the so-called effects of Marijuana and some new studies that show otherwise. To arrive at the truth – we will need to verify these studies independently and take a critical look at the evidences presented.

• Confusion on Marijuana

o Marijuana causes cancer
 as noted above, thc – the active ingredient in marijuana – is actually shown to fight cancer and not cause it.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,196678,00.html

o Marijuana causes brain damage
 on the contrary, it promotes development of new brain cells - http://www.jci.org/cgi/content/abstract/jci25509

 It doesn’t cause phychosis
http://www.schizophrenia.com/sznews/archives/002425.html

 doesn’t affect IQ
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn2140

o marijuana causes memory loss
 This is a good example where studies are still in contradiction to each other. What is the truth then? We’ll probably need more studies

 this 2006 study says it does and uses 20 long term users
http://www.newscientist.com/channel/being-human/drugs-alcohol/dn8839-longterm-marijuana-use-may-fog-the-brain.html
 This 1999 study says it doesn’t but uses 1,318 participant
http://www.drugtext.org/library/articles/cannabrain.htm

Remember – Marijuana is not regulated right now and there are no legal entities supervising or controlling its production. Hence – smoked marijuana is usually very crudely made. The point is – if it were legal, we’ll be able to put in more controls for those who want to smoke it (like tobacco regulations).

Among the established short-term effects of marijuana are short-term memory loss, slow reaction times and red eyes. What are the long term effects?

• http://www.safeaccessnow.org/downloads/long%20term%20cannabis%20effects.pdf
• Here is a good discourse that has a personal account of a long term user at the bottom
http://answers.google.com/answers/main?cmd=threadview&id=30105

Ok – so, at this point, why is there a lot of confusion regarding marijuana? We’ll have to go back to history a bit…first – what is the etymology of Marijuana? I searched for an answer and this is what I found: the term Marijuana did not exist prior to the 1930s! On the other hand, the many uses of the Hemp plant were just slowly being discovered during that time. What happened then was that Marijuana as a term was introduced through propaganda and media manipulation as the new evil of society. Incidentally, people did not know that Marijuana was Hemp then. A lot of material against marijuana was created during that period, the most famous of which is the movie “Reefer Madness.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reefer_Madness. This movie identified marijuana as the source of extreme violence, among other things (marijuana actually makes you peaceful) . Reefer Madness is also the term used to describe this era in general and the result of this was the enactment of the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1937_Marihuana_Tax_Act) . A lot of people did not know that marijuana was actually hemp then, hence Popular Mechanics even came out with an article a year later extolling the importance of hemp http://www.nirvana-shop.com/untoldstory/pmpage1.html. The rest, as they say, is history and we have been denied the many uses of marijuana because of the Reefer Madness era. Let us re-evaluate the evidence on Marijuana and bring the truth to the light of scrutiny. As the problems facing mankind today surmount, evidence is available that says this plant can save some of them – we only need to end our confusion and it will start with more people becoming educated on it.

By: Warlocke
You can read more @ http://forum.gov.ph/thread.asp?rootID=159768&catID=16